#MostEvil | Gary Marshman, born 30/05/1983, originally from Black Abbey in Bradford but has lived at 27 Tennyson Avenue, Bridlington YO15 2EX for several years – stole an elderly couple’s border collie from outside a supermarket; dog found dead with injuries consistent with being thrown from height
Evil Gary Marshman stole an elderly couple’s dog from outside a supermarket. The dog, Jess (pictured), was found dead two days later having been thrown from a bridge.
In January 2010 Marshman who had a string of previous convictions including possession of a firearm and burglary, stole 12-year-old border collie Jess, beloved pet of retired couple Ron and Enid Bisby, from outside a supermarket in Cleckheaton.
Two days later Jess’s battered body was found in shallow water at the bottom of a viaduct. It appeared that she had been thrown from a bridge. Her collar and lead were found in bushes nearby.
CCTV cameras captured Marshman, who at the time was staying at a local bail hostel, going into the supermarket to buy socks. He was then shown running off with the dog.
Marshman refused to say if he had thrown to dog to her death and was convicted only of theft.
Enid Bisby spoke afterwards of the impact the loss of their pet had had on her and her husband. She said: “Jess was the love of our lives, so much so we had an artist paint a picture of her from a photograph. For this to happen to any dog would be terrible, but for it to happen to an old, trusting dog makes it even more upsetting.”
Jess was the much loved pet of elderly couple Ron and Enid Bisby, who have been left inconsolable by her loss.
Ron Bisby said: ““I have been unable to sleep properly. I feel numb and I miss my dog terribly. My wife feels she has aged 10 years and won’t leave the house. I can’t put a price on Jess. She is priceless to me.”
Sentencing: jailed for 26 weeks for theft. No ban.
CONVICTED (2010) | David Brinley Braddon (also known as Dai Brad), born 01/05/1963, of 11 Glyn Llwyfen, Llanbradach, Caerphilly CF83 3PL – owned five banned pit bull terrier dogs and was involved in dog fighting
After a three-day trial in June 2010, father-of-five David Brinley Braddon was found guilty of keeping or training a dog for use in connection of animal fighting, guilty of having articles for use in connection of animal fighting and guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog.
Braddon, who operates a tattoo studio in Bargoed, Wales called Skin FX and fronts a white supremacist band, also admitted five charges of possessing a banned breed.
On 17 March 2009, officers from the RSPCA special operations unit joined South Wales Police to execute a search warrant at Braddon’s home. A search of the property revealed five pit bull terrier type dogs, four of them being kept in an elaborate kennel set-up in a garage at the rear of the property.
A motorised and a manual treadmill with attachments for dog collars, which are commonly used to train animals before a fight were also discovered.
Braddon’s refrigerator contained a bottle of the penicillin Duphacillin, an animal antibiotic normally only dispensed by a vet. They also discovered a set of weighing scales for use when the dogs were being weighed in before fights and various books on pit bulls and dog fighting including a manual entitled Dogs of Velvet and Steel which was known as the “dog fighter’s bible”.
One of the dogs found at Braddon’s home during the search was known as Otis (pictured). The animal fitted the name, description and photographs of a dog listed in many magazines and fight reports seized by the RSPCA during its investigations into organised dog fighting. Otis featured as having won two fights which was recorded in the Pit Bull Year Book 2008. That dog had 42 separate scars and another dog had 21 scars.
RSPCA chief inspector Mike Butcher said: “It is a major breakthrough for us to successfully prosecute someone like David Braddon.
“He is a major figure among the British dog fighting community, making it all the more pleasing to see him brought to justice.
“Despite this horrific so-called ‘sport’ being banned as long ago as 1835, there remains a network of organised dog fighters still operating across Britain.
“These people are responsible for some of the most deliberate and barbaric acts of animal cruelty the society investigates.
“It remains a constant battle to find these elusive characters and bring them to justice, but the RSPCA remains entirely committed to doing just that.”
Braddon with partner Melony McElroy, now Kim Jones
Braddon has five children: Emma (born 1984), Amy (born 1986), David James (born 1988), Nikki (born 1990) and Megan Rhian (born 2002). In 2015 son David James Braddon was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. His partner is Melony McElroy who goes by the name Kim Jones.
Sentencing: jailed for six months, later reduced to 16 weeks on appeal; £1,000 costs. Disqualified from keeping animals for 15 years (expires July 2025). All five banned breed dogs were ordered to be destroyed
CONVICTED (2010) | huntsman Alistair Thomas Robinson, born April 1962, of 1 Essendy House, Bampton Grange, Penrith CA10 2QR – flushed a fox from her den and beat her to death with a stick.
Robinson denied using dogs to hunt a fox but was convicted after a trial.
League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) members Ed Shephard and Paul Tillsey showed the court film footage of Robinson’s actions as an Ullswater Foxhounds ‘drag’ hunt passed Hartsop on October 26, 2009. The film showed the defendant take a fox from the ground where his two terriers had been running in tunnels.
The hunt was intended to be a legal ‘drag’, where dogs follow a scent planted by members. Robinson was filmed putting his black terrier into a hole in the area where a fox had been spotted.
Oliver King, prosecuting, said Robinson was seen by LACS members digging with a stick in the area where the fox had run underground, after the hunt moved on.
Robinson later admitted, in interview, he had killed the animal and buried her carcass in a dry stone wall, where LACS members later retrieved it. He claimed he did not intend to use dogs to kill the animal.
A post-mortem examination on the vixen was carried out by Stephen Harris at Bristol University. The examination revealed she had been attacked for ‘a prolonged period’ by dogs and received extensive injuries. The court heard that there were bite wounds to the fox’s face and she had a partially crushed skull.
Stephen Welford, defending, said Robinson had only sent his terrier underground to help track and bring out a four-year-old dog that had accidentally escaped its lead and run in.
When interviewed by Cumbria police, after his arrest, Robinson said: “The fox was in a bit of a state, so I gave it a couple of knocks to finish it off. It wouldn’t have survived.”
Sentencing | fined £250, ordered to pay £900 costs and a £15 surcharge.
#MostEvil | Kelvin Hill aka Kieran Hill, born 26/07/1975, as of 2022 of 12 Witton Road, Handsworth, Birmingham B6 5NY, but with links to Warwick, Bedworth and Nuneaton – killed a Labrador-cross puppy named Marley by smashing his head against the floor.
Evil career criminal Kelvin Hill from Warwick and with links to Nuneaton and Bedworth brutally killed a 5mo Lab-cross puppy named Marley. The photo of him with the dog above was from 2015 but it’s not known if the dog is his and where the dog is now
Gaynor Sutton, prosecuting for the RSPCA, told the court the incident happened on September 29, 2009, after Hill had called at the Nuneaton home of former partner Karen Harbour. He had asked her for money and stayed in the house alone while she went with her mother to a post office to collect child benefit.
When she returned, Ms Harbour discovered that the male puppy, called Marley – bought as a present for her seven-year-old son – was lying dead in the lounge. There was a pool of blood and urine on the floor and splashes of blood on cupboards in the kitchen.
In evidence, Ms Harbour said: “I was extremely upset. Kelvin Hill was upstairs and he denied having anything to do with it.
“When I said I was going to phone the police he jumped up and said he had killed my dog by taking it by its legs and smashing its skull against the kitchen floor.”
Marley suffered three fractures to the jaw, smashed teeth and injuries to the brain before dying in agony.
Magistrates heard how it would have taken up to 15 minutes for the little dog to die.
Hill was already serving a prison sentence for aggravated burglary and refused to attend court to face the animal cruelty charge.
Sentencing: 20 weeks in custody (ran consecutively to his sentence for burglary). Banned for life on keeping animals.
CONVICTED (2010) | Keith Doyle, born c. 1975, a convicted wife beater and animal abuser previously from the village of Banks in West Lancashire and more recently (2021) of Hart Street, Southport PR8 6DY
On Guy Fawkes Night 2009 Doyle went berserk, smashing up his home and subjecting his long-term partner to a violent and bloody attack.
Then in an act of unbelievable cruelty Doyle poured scalding hot tea over the cage containing his partner’s beloved African Grey parrot, Jasper, before grabbing the squawking bird and ripping out his feathers, killing him. All of this took place while the couple’s four-year-old son was upstairs.
In April 2010 Doyle pleaded guilty to three counts of actual bodily harm, causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and making threats to kill. He was sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment, eight months of which was on license. He was banned from keeping pets for five years (expired 2015).
#MostEvil | Terence Henry Simpson, born 11 January 1977, with a most recent (2022) known address of Syke Avenue, Tingley, Wakefield WF3 1LU – killed three of his six pet dogs with a hammer because he claimed he couldn’t cope with them any more.
Simpson was jailed for 20 weeks and banned from keeping animals for life after pleading guilty to killing the dogs.
The court heard that Simpson, at the time living in Embleton Road, Methley, Leeds, had been talking about getting rid of the dogs for a couple of weeks.
On 20 September 2009, after some hours spent drinking, he went out to the garden where the dogs were.
He then killed two of the dogs in his shed while a third – a 16-week-old puppy – was killed in the back garden.
RSPCA inspector Dave Holgate said: “These dogs suffered dreadful, brutal deaths which were totally unnecessary.
“The fear and distress they must have suffered doesn’t bear thinking about.
“He selected the dogs he was going to kill and the ones he was going to spare. Afterwards, he took the bodies to a nearby quarry and dumped them there.
“It’s tragic that he felt so unable to cope, and he is remorseful about what he’s done, but whatever was going on in his life it couldn’t possibly justify what happened here.”
The remaining three dogs, two adults and a puppy, were signed over to the RSPCA at the time of the incident and were later re-homed.
CONVICTED (2010) | Stanley Bates, born 18/06/1969, of Southbourne Avenue, Walsall WS2 9TE – left a rottweiler named Lady and a Staffordshire bull terrier called Bella to suffer with open sores and infections.
Stanley Bates from Walsall was banned for life after mistreating two dogs. Photo shows his partner Jacqueline Hurst and daughter Katie Hurst who were also convicted on separate charges of animal cruelty.
Bates had originally denied five counts of causing unnecessary suffering to animals. But he pleaded guilty to two of the charges of failing to get his dogs veterinary treatment at the eleventh hour, with the other three being dismissed.
Both Lady and Bella were found to be suffering from severe cases of mange and when Bates, along with Jackie Hurst and daughter Katie Hurst belatedly took them to a vet, they were reported to the RSPCA.
CONVICTED (2010) | internet animal trader Linda Winter (aka Linda Jayne Leaf), born c. 1969, of Wycoller Avenue, Burnley BB10 4LF – kept dogs, cats and guinea pigs in freezing and filthy conditions in a series of stables and a caravan
Linda / Lynda Winter aka Linda Leaf pictured outside court in 2010, and one of the dogs rescued from the miserable conditions in which she kept them
An investigation was launched into the activities of puppy and horse trader Linda Winter by the RSPCA after police found a variety of animals in squalid conditions at a freezing-cold farm near Lennox Street, Worsthorne.
Several dogs, cats and guinea pigs were found in caravans and a nearby stable block by officers, who were conducting a stakeout as part of an unrelated criminal operation, and the RSPCA was alerted.
The conditions in the caravan were said to be filthy and often the animals had not been given adequate food or water despite the temperature barely being above zero degrees centigrade.
Two rabbits and a guinea pig, left in cages by Winter at the Lennox Street paddock, were found to be dead by police.
2019 social media photo of Linda Winter
Vet Peter O’Hagen was called in to examine the animals and they were removed at the RSPCA’s request.
RSPCA inspector Jason Bowles and Mr O’Hagen also made a video of the caravan and stables noting that, at the time, New Year’s Day, the temperature was zero degrees centigrade.
Mr Bowles told the court said there was a strong smell of urine in the dirty caravan and he could see no food or water left for a Rottweiler puppy and a small Border terrier he found inside.
He then moved to a stable block, where he found the dead rabbits and guinea pig, and a cage containing three cats, which had apparently been left with dry food but no water. The litter tray was full and the cats were sitting in their own filth.
The next stable inspected had three dogs, two Bedlington terriers and a small black spaniel, the court heard.
Mr Bowles said no water had been left for the dogs. The terriers’ coats were matted and the spaniel’s was ‘dirty’.
Finally two Sharpei dogs, with bad skin conditions, were discovered in a third stable.
These dogs had been left water but it had frozen because of the conditions.
Winter, who advertises puppies for sale on the internet, was questioned by PC Mark Jenkinson when she arrived at the scene.
She was alleged to have told PC Jenkinson that the animals at the compound were hers and she was looking after them “because no-one else would”.
Winter was questioned about the discovery and later charged with 18 offences of failing to provide adequate care and diets for 13 animals found by the authorities.
She denied the charges during a two-day trial but was convicted of all the offences.
In her defence, Winter said her car had been impounded and she was unable to attend to care for the animals daily. Her daughter and a family friend had been given the responsibility instead and had not done a good job.
Magistrates banned Winter from keeping dogs and all other animals for six years and to pay costs to the RSPCA of £260.
The court heard that the disqualification may prove difficult to enforce as his client’s 17-year-old daughter had pets of her own.
But the bench told Winter she must make provisions to ensure she complied with the ban or face further court action.
The trial was told that Winter’s details had been found on various trading websites, advertising puppies and ponies for sale.
Following the case RSPCA inspector Jason Bowles, who investigated Winter, said: “She left these animals to live in freezing and squalid conditions and some suffered and others died as a result.
“She was caught out though as the result of a joint operation between the RSPCA and Burnley Police.
“I would like to make a plea to people to be aware when you are buying an animal, without researching its history properly, then you could be funding misery for more animals in future.”
Sentencing: costs of £260. Six-year ban on keeping animals (expired 2016).
